Case studies: Chartered counselling psychologist: Georgina

Georgina works in an NHS foundation trust community mental health recovery service. Her first degree was a BSc in Psychology, after which she went to the USA and worked as a support worker in residential homes for individuals with enduring physical and mental health problems. This was a career-defining experience, and on returning to the UK, she undertook an MSc in Counselling Psychology and qualified as a chartered counselling psychologist.

My interest in psychological therapy stems from my university summer vacation work as an agency cleaner for hospitals, including the secure psychiatric wards, which was a very different world, much hidden from the general public. I became curious about what led to individuals being there.

After completing my BSc in Psychology, I decided that I would like to work with individuals with mental and physical difficulties and I worked as a support worker in the US for a year, where I helped individual clients do everything: go to the toilet, eat, manage their finances, go out on social activities, and attend medical appointments. I was also asked to provide observations on their mood and behaviour when they attended clinic and I became increasingly keen to train in the field of psychological therapy.

On returning to the UK, I gained a place to study counselling psychology at the University of Roehampton and obtained my first placement as a telephone counsellor with BUPA.

On qualifying as a counselling psychologist, I was able to continue to develop my role with BUPA, including providing face-to-face counselling, organising and providing trauma debriefs and counselling for client companies, providing clinical supervision for staff and eventually becoming a team leader, where I was then in charge of managing eight staff and bank counsellors. The overall exposure and variety I gained within this role definitely increased my confidence, and I believe, made me more employable when I went for a counselling/clinical psychology role within the NHS.

My current role includes providing specialist psychological assessment and formulation for adults with complex, severe and enduring mental health problems, including psychosis and personality disorders. I am responsible for undertaking a range of psychological therapeutic interventions, drawing on a variety of psychological models (predominantly CBT) and employing a range of modalities (individuals, family, group). I am also required to provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals within the multidisciplinary team and to undertake psychologically based risk assessment and risk management for relevant clients. In addition to being available for advice and consultation for staff, my role also involves providing specialist psychological guidance to carers and families of service users.

Something I would like to do further training in is undertaking neuropsychological assessments, as you can be overlooked as a practitioner in comparison to clinical psychologists because of this one assessment component. I am also very interested in family work and the systemic model, and I completed a foundation course in systemic therapy last year and will continue this training.

A typical day for me involves seeing, on average, four to six clients for both assessments and therapy sessions. After each session, I am required to record my clinical notes on the trust’s electronic database (RiO), write reports, and update my diary. Depending on the client, I may discuss their progress with other members of my team, including psychiatrists, social workers, community psychiatric nurses, and support workers. Working as part of a multidisciplinary team is something I particularly enjoy as not only do you gain insight and knowledge from various different trainings and disciplines, but critical support in what can be very challenging work.

I would definitely encourage any graduates to do a placement in the NHS as it is increasingly difficult to get a job in the NHS even if you are fully qualified but have never worked in an NHS setting. Before interview for an NHS position, I would read up on the Care Programme Approach (CPA) , which covers the care plans used across services in the NHS, and research current changes to policies and procedures in the service you are being interviewed for.